In Japan, more than 270,000 cars were ruined in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. For the msnbc.com team reporting on the recovery in the Kesennuma area, the sheer number of ruined vehicles has been surprising. Multimedia producer Jim Seida captured a surround image of dozens of ruined cars neatly stacked for disposal. Explore them in the panoramic image below.

The cars will go to good use. They plan to scrap them and use the steel for rebuilding.

Nahoko Yamada who is working with the msnbc.com team reports the following:

The number of cars that were washed away by tsunami totals 270,000 units in three affected prefectures, Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima, the Yomiuri newspaper reported on April 16. That's 7 percent of total registered cars in those areas. The hardest hit areas were Fukushima and Miyagi, with over 100,000 trashed cars each.

Jim Seida / msnbc.com

Cars are stacked atop one another in Saichi, outside Kesennuma, Japan, Monday, June 6, 2011.